i884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



495 



Qm HepE?. 



And before him shall be g-athered all nations: 

 and he shall separate them one from another, as a 

 shepherd divideth his sheep from the g-oats.— Mat- 

 thew '^a-.'-^^. 



ID you ever kncnv, friends, that I used 

 to talk skepticism and iiiti<lelity to 

 some PxtentV Well, it is true, I did; 

 and one argument tliat used to please 

 me, that I used to like to bring for- 

 ward, was, that the idea was absurd, of sep- 

 arating the human family into two grades, or 

 classes— the good and the bad. The reason 

 we (that is, tliose who stood with me, and 

 myself) dwelt on was, that where there were 

 so" many different stages of both goodness 

 and badness, if that is the proper way to tell 

 it, there could l)e no just line of sejjaration 

 decided upon. (Granting that Christians 

 w^ere better than iniidels, we argued they 

 were often so little better that it would l)"e 

 impossible to set a fixed dividing line with 

 justice. Afriend of mine used to put it this 

 way: Stand the different grades of humanity 

 along in a row; put the worst man at the foot, 

 and tlie best man at the head, then till up 

 with the intermediate grades, and some- 

 where near the middle you would have two 

 men side by side who average so nearly alike 

 that little if any difference could be discov- 

 ered ; and yet "one would be doomed to eter- 

 nal punishment, and the other to eternal de- 

 lights. This was the way I used to state it. 

 W^ell, dear friends, if "we go to work hon- 

 estly to search the Bible through for state- 

 ments like this, we shall tind that it does not 

 anywhere make any very plain statement, to 

 give a ground for the above. The verse of 

 our text does indeed say that the great 

 Judge of the univeise will have gathered be- 

 fore him all luitions, and that he will sepa- 

 rate them one from another; and if we take 

 the verse before the text, we are told that it 

 is Jesus our Savior who shall sit upon this 

 throne, and judge; and the time is to be 

 when he shall come in his glory. Reading 

 the verse after the text, we are told they 

 shall be divided on his left hand and on his 

 right. 



I'erhaps I should say in the outset, that 

 there are many things in God's plans that 

 we can not comprehend ; but it is true, how- 

 ever, that the more we study him and his 

 w^orks and his holy word, the"l)etter we com- 

 prehend ; and the" things that once seemed 

 dark and mysterious become plain and easy. 

 Now, very likely I sliall not be able to make 

 this matter ])lain and easy to you all, but 1 

 think I can help you some. For some days 

 ])ack I have beenlooking at humanity— look- 

 ing at the friends whom I know and love, 

 and studying on this prolilem, wliy are they 

 not all Ciiiistians ? l'eriia[is you have your- 

 self said in your own heart, ''Am I a ("'hris- 

 tian y IIow can 1 tellV" llow can any one 

 tell V ran any one tell V Ves, my friend, I 

 think any one can tell. And if we can tell.— 

 if we have decided within our own hearts 

 what it is that makes us Christians or the 

 contrary,— then comes the great question, 

 standing out squarely before us," Am I irill- 

 ing to ])e a i'hristian"?" 

 Since T have been meditating on this sub- 



ject, I have felt an intense longing to go first 

 to one friend and then another, and pro- 

 pound the question, ''Are you willing to be 

 a Christian V'' If I should get to talking 

 with you, and we should right here honestly 

 exchange confidences with each other, and I 

 should piit this cpiestion to you, '-Are you 

 willing to be a Christian V" what would you 

 say? I have been thinking what these "an- 

 swers would lie— how diverse, and h()W va- 

 ried, ihit the moi-e I think of it, and the 

 more T ]>i-ay over it, the stronger conies the 

 conviction' to my heait, that any one of you 

 may— every soul "on the face of this eartli of 

 ours, who has the intellect to comprehend 

 the meaning of the word Christian, can de- 

 cide in the affirmative if they will. Where 

 the answer is, "No, I do not want to be a 

 Clu'istian," the matter is ended. That class 

 of people lia\e freely and vohuitarily chosen 

 a place on Christ's left haiul ; they alone are 

 to blame for it, and nobody else. I presume 

 you have heard discussions as to whether 

 there is such a thing in tlie world as an honest 

 doubter. I Avas a doubter a great many years 

 of my life, but I was not an hoiu'st one" ;" that 

 is, had the above question been ju-opounded 

 to me, and had I honestly and truthfully giv- 

 en answer, there could have been no "other 

 reply than the negative. 



And do you indeed pretend to say, Mr. 

 Root, that any one Avho chooses may become 

 a Christian by simjily expressing a willing- 

 ness V This is exactly what I do intend to 

 say, friends. Any oiie may, in one instant, 

 start out to ser^■e Christ, if he decides 

 the (fuestion for Christ in his own mind ; 

 and to do this requires nothing more than 

 the simple eftort of the will, just as we 

 choose on any other sul)ject. You can de- 

 cide in favor of Christ and Christianity, just 

 as simply as you can decide to go off on the 

 train as it comes up to the depot, or stay at 

 home and not go olf. You simply choose. 

 Bear in mind, I am talking about honest 

 people now, and I am talking about a deci- 

 sion of the heart, rather than what any one 

 might say. Of course, there are many weak 

 people who decide upon the impulse of the 

 moment— who decide without counting the 

 cost. 



Whieh of you, intending- to build a tower, sitteth 

 not down first, and eounteth the cost, whether he 

 have sufficient to finish it? lest haply, after he hath 

 laid the foundation, and is not alile 'to finish it, all 

 that behold it l)eK'in to inoelv him, saying-. This man 

 began to build, and was not alile to finish.— Lukk 

 14:38-30. 



Now, is it fair to punish such when their 

 intentions were good but their self-control 

 was too weak to carry out their promises? 

 It seems to me it is just as fair to punish 

 such asitisto punish peoi>le who make prom- 

 ises of any kind, and then fail to keep 

 them. Such people are punished right along 

 through life, for no one can break any i)rom- 

 ise or contract, without sulfering for it, and 

 paying the jienalty. Sujtpose, dear friend, I 

 luiVe l)een sitting "by your side. Suppose we 

 have been exchanging thoughts and ideas on 

 this subject, and have lieen having a good 

 friendly talk about this matter of eternal life. 

 If you are an honest seeker for righteous- 

 ness and holiness, we can have a talk that 

 will bring a blessing with it; and, by the 



